Joe Wright To Helm “Garden of Beasts”

Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Darkest Hour”) is in final negotiations to direct the film adaptation of Erik Larson’s novel “In the Garden of Beasts” for StudioCanal and Playtone Productions.

Previously set up at Universal seven years ago with Michel Hazanavicius slated to direct, Tom Hanks was previously attached to star as William Dodd, a mild-mannered Chicago professor in the early 1930’s who becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany before the Nazis began to assert an iron grip across Europe.

At first, his family embraces the vibrant Berlin scene. He soon hears murmurs of anti-Jew violence, advising the U.S. State Department who brush it off. As censorship grows and radical laws come into place, he comes to realise the horrific genocide that Hitler has planned.

Whether Hanks will still star is unclear, though he and Gary Goetzman will produce.